With swim season in full swing at Westborough High School, the team is off to a good start, and senior Holly Carew has settled into her role as captain. She co-leads with seniors Nishka Pant and Justin Papagelis. Both the boys and girls team have a 4-1 record with the girls losing their first meet of the season to Bromfield and the boys taking a tough loss to Nashoba. Despite both teams each taking a loss, Carew has high hopes for both the girls and boys team. 

She explains, “I think we have had some tough meets so far, and definitely have some tough meets coming up in the near future, specifically Algonquin, but overall I think we are going to do super well this year.”

Carew’s personal favorite events to swim are the 50 free and 100 free. With being close to approaching the halfway point of the season, she has already made numerous accomplishments. Carew has already qualified for leagues in the 100 free and she was also part of a 400 free relay that qualified Westborough girls for sectionals. 

In addition to Carew’s success, other members of the team have also reached some big accomplishments. The boys have qualified for states in the 200 Medley Relay and the girls for sectionals in the same event. Also, senior and captain, Justin Papegelis has already made qualifying times for states in the 100 fly, 500 free, 100 breast, 50 free, 100 free, and the 200 IM. A boys’ relay team has also qualified for states in the 200 free relay. Many other swimmers have qualified for both individual and relay team events in sectionals as well.

In addition to being successful in the pool, Carew also plans to have a successful season as captain of the team. The team elects captains so Carew is happy that the team thinks that she is willing to take on this leadership role. 

This is a fitting role for her, especially since her favorite part of the team is, “the people. It’s definitely a group of people that you wouldn’t get anywhere else because it’s so many different types of people from so many different parts and groups around the school and they all come together to make a super fun and unique team.”

Both boys and girls practice and attend meets together, so both teams act as one, which is unlike most sports at the high school. Carew and the captains are striving to prioritize team bonding while doing well points-wise as well.  

Carew explains that these two aspects “are both super important and good pillars for this team and program in particular.”

The swim team’s next meet is on Sunday, January 12 against Algonquin at the Boro’s YMCA.